


The Boy Next Door

by littlesciencebabies (readaholic2200)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, F/M, Less Than 5K
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-28
Updated: 2015-06-28
Packaged: 2018-04-06 15:44:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4227573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readaholic2200/pseuds/littlesciencebabies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma Simmons' best friend in the whole wide world was her next door neighbor. But when he reveals that he's moving away, her whole life changes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Boy Next Door

**Author's Note:**

  * For [multifandomcircusfreak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/multifandomcircusfreak/gifts).



> For losingfitzsimmons on tumblr. Her prompt was "next door neighbors AU". I hope you enjoy it!

For Jemma Simmons, there had always been the boy next door.

When she was four, a new family moved right next door to her old-fashioned, two-story home. Immediately, she was drawn to them. There were never any new neighbors in her neighborhood, just the same kids who teased her mercilessly for liking science instead of princesses and their boring parents. Her new neighbor was a boy her age and his mother that had just moved from Scotland. Finally, there would be someone from outside her zip code to talk to!

Jemma made every attempt to be friends with the new boy. She would try to talk to him on the playground, but he would just brush her off, mumbling something about strangers. She even went so far to ask her parents to invite the new family over for dinner. Jemma knew that her parents were the type of people that wanted to know everything about everyone in their neighborhood, so they graciously accepted Jemma’s offer.

At dinner the following week, Jemma found out that the boy, Leo but he preferred to be called Fitz, shared some similar interests with her. His mother, Isla, mentioned that all Fitz ever wanted to do was read his science books. Instantly, Jemma’s ears perked up. There was someone her age who was interested in science, too? That never happened, especially in her neighborhood. She instantly started bombarding Fitz with questions about his favorite science books and what he liked best in them, all of which he graciously answered. From the way Fitz answered her questions, Jemma could tell that he was also glad that someone liked science as much as he did.

After that day, Fitz and Jemma were inseparable. They spent as much time as possible together, just reading their books and discussing their contents. Jemma learned quickly that Fitz was utterly terrified of getting his hands dirty, especially for science, which was what Jemma loved best about the subject. Despite the merciless teasing for two years, Jemma learned that their two contrasting interests worked perfect together. Fitz’s love for building new things and Jemma’s interest in collecting and observing items from nature complimented each other, and throughout the years, they were able to refine that skill.

Once they were old enough, their parents registered them to go to the same school, mostly because Fitz and Jemma threw a fit at even the thought of going to a different school than the other. This proved to be very helpful when, within a year, both children were recommended to skip three grades. Their parents weren’t surprised at all, given that both children were highly intelligent for their ages. There was a concern for their social interactions with their older classmates, but after a long conversation with Fitz and Jemma, it seemed that they would be fine as long as they were by each other’s side.

The next year, Jemma found herself in a sea of older children. She had to admit, it was frightening to be in classes with kids three years older than her and still being the smartest one in the classroom—besides Fitz, of course. Luckily, Fitz was with her every step of the way. She couldn’t imagine what would happen if she had to go through this alone. Seeing those judging glares from her classmates whenever she answered a question right felt like a punch to the stomach no matter how much she tried to brush it off. With Fitz by her side, he gave her the strength to truly look past those under-the-breath comments with reassurance that they were still the smartest ones in the grade, no matter what the other kids said.

When they weren’t at school, Jemma and Fitz were at either of their houses, under the guise of doing homework (which they had already completed a month previously), working on one project or another. One of their greatest inventions was a device that connected their two windows so they could transport items between their houses quicker. Their rooms were directly across from one another on the second floor, with about ten feet of space between them. They wanted a way to just be able to send things over to the other’s room without having to walk all the way to the other house. The project took almost three months to complete, but by the end of those months, they were completing projects faster than they ever had before.

From late-night talking to even later night scienceing, Jemma considered Fitz to be her best friend in the whole world. From the moment she met him, there was a type of unspoken connection between them, too strong to be put into words. Sometimes, Jemma felt like they were one mind being put into two bodies. When they would brainstorm, their thoughts merged into one, not knowing where one started and the other stopped. In those moments, it made Jemma feel immensely grateful to have a friend like Fitz.

That’s why, when she was nine years old, Jemma Simmons received the worst news of her life.

It came one night when there was a familiar faint beeping at her window. The Transporto (as Fitz desperately wanted to call it; Jemma was trying her damned hardest to veto it, to no avail) had arrived with something inside of it. Rubbing sleep out of her eyes, Jemma sluggishly walked over to the other side of her room and opened her window--only to find Fitz perched on her windowsill.

“Oh, thank god, I thought I was going to be here all night,” Fitz grumbled as he stumbled into her room.

“What in the world do you think you’re doing, Fitz?” Jemma whispered. “My parents could wake up at any moment, and your mum could wake up to find you missing, and we do not want to face either of their wraths.”

“I needed to talk to you. So, I climbed in Transporto”--cue pointed glare from Jemma--”and I came right over.”

“And you felt the need to do this at 3am?”

Fitz nodded somberly, eyes glued to his bare feet, his hand fidgeting with the watch on his wrist. Jemma knew that whatever was going on, it was serious. Fitz rarely got serious, but when he did, he was never able to look anyone in the eyes, and his usual restlessness got worse, his hands unable to stop moving. This often happened whenever Fitz’s father was brought up. Jemma knew the best course of action was to just let him talk everything through and to provide him a shoulder to cry on.

“What’s wrong, Fitz?” Jemma asked, motioning him over to sit on the edge of her bed with her.

It’s always calmest before the storm, Jemma knew, and in those few seconds before the bandage was ripped off, it seemed to be one of the more peaceful times in Jemma’s life. The moon was casting long shadows along her bedroom floor, a stray shard of light illuminating Fitz’s face, his blue eyes brighter than she had ever seen them before. The only reason she remembered this small detail was because he was looking right at her when he revealed the news.

“I’m moving.”

In that moment, Jemma could feel her whole world crumbling down around her. This life that she had built with her best friend beside her the whole way was leaving, just like that. She couldn’t process the thought of doing anything without Fitz, so her mind went straight into denial mode.

“At least you’re not moving far, right? So we can still go to school together. I mean, it’s going to be a big change without you just next door, but I’m sure we can adjust. And what’ll we do with Transporto? Do you want to take it since you actually built it, but I’m sure I can visit him on weekends, and we can find other uses for it, maybe at school and--”

Jemma knew this was bad. Rambling was always her go-to defense mechanism, and Fitz knew that, too.

Hesitantly, Fitz interrupted her, his voice quaking, “No...I’m moving back to Scotland.”

And that was when the dam broke. Jemma started sobbing, hot tears streaming down her face. She was going to have to live without her best friend, her rock. She was going to have to deal with her older classmates making fun of her, all without Fitz. She couldn’t accept this.

Jemma threw her wracking body into Fitz’s outstretched arms, taking comfort in his hug. She couldn’t help but think this would be one of the last times she ever got to feel the warmth of his hugs--he really did give great hugs--and to feel safe next to him.

She wouldn’t be able to work on projects anymore, she could never find anyone half as smart as Fitz that also understood how she worked as well as he did. No matter how much Jemma pretended that Fitz’s names for the projects irked her, she couldn’t help but give a small, fond smile whenever those names were mentioned.

Nothing would ever be the same again without Fitz by her side. The six years that they were friends were the best years of her life (not that she had much to compare it with). Thinking of life without him was physically impossible to imagine.

Jemma reluctantly pulled away from the embrace once her sobs had diminished, and she was finally able to collect enough breath to form coherent sentences. She noticed that Fitz wiped a hand under his eyes--he was crying, too. At that one action, Jemma could feel that rock-hard lump form at the base of her throat, but she forced it down, needing to stay strong.

“When are you moving?” she croaked, her teeth clamping down on her bottom lip to keep it from quivering.

“At the end of the summer.” Jemma felt a small sigh of relief brush past her lips. It was May now, so they still had a few months. “Mum already enrolled me at a school back in Glasgow. I’ll be starting there in September.”

Jemma could taste copper in her mouth. She had bitten down so hard on her lip that she had drawn blood. She hastily wiped her mouth before taking a deep breath, calming her nerves. She had to put on a brave face. If she didn’t, it would be so much worse when Fitz leaves.

“Well, let’s make this the best summer ever, okay?”

And it really was the best summer Jemma had ever had. They had done the most work over the course of three months than they had in three years. Instead of going to Science Camp (which they had gone to every summer they had known each other), they opted to stay at home and work on their own projects. Besides, what else could that camp teach them that they didn’t already know?

By the end of August, they had completed almost twenty projects, each completely different than the last. This was accomplished by never leaving each other’s sides and staying up all hours of the night working then waking up early the next morning. Jemma knew it wasn’t good for her to be getting about five hours of sleep every night, but she decided it was worth the risk to spend if she got to spend as much time with Fitz as possible.

However, all good things had to come to an end. As the end of the summer drew nearer, Jemma began to notice multitudes of boxes piling up in Fitz’s room, the once cluttered mess becoming barren. It was like a stab to the gut, the reminder that in a few weeks, her best friend would be leaving, and there was a high possibility that they might never see each other again. Every night for the last two weeks of summer, Jemma cried herself to sleep.

One night on the last week before Fitz left for Glasgow, her father had heard Jemma sobbing. Immediately, he entered her room and sat down on her bed, rubbing soothing circles on her back, her sobs calming with every motion.

“Jemma, love, what’s wrong?” he asked.

“Fitz is leaving on Sunday,” she sniffled, harshly rubbing a hand on her damp cheeks. “And we’ll likely never see each other again. He’s my best friend in the whole world, Dad, I can’t just let him leave.”

Another sob violently wracked her body, and her father gathered Jemma up in his arms, rocking them both slightly.

“Have I ever told you a story about my best friend?” he asked. Jemma shook her head no. “Well, my best friend is your mother. I’ve told you before that we met in uni, and that we instantly fell in love with each other. How could she not fall in love with me and my dashing good looks.” That earned a small chuckle from Jemma.

“Anyways, we were dating for about three and a half years, and then we graduated. She knew immediately that she wanted to get her PhD in medicine, while I was just fine with the business degree I’d gotten. However, the school that had the best program for what she wanted was five hours away from home. We had a very long talk about it. I wanted to stay home and work at my father’s business, while she wanted to go get her PhD. We decided that it was best that we each did what we wanted to do, so we broke up. We agreed that if she ever decided to move back, we could try being friends again.

“Flash forward to five years later. I’m pretty high up in my dad’s company, and she had finally gotten her PhD. She was offered a job right back at home, and it earned a lot of money. So, your mum called me and told me that she would be moving back and that she wanted to meet for coffee. I was dating this other girl at the time, Ashleigh, while she had just gotten out of a nasty breakup. We eventually got that coffee and decided to become friends again.

“Long story short, two years later, we were married, and within two months, she was pregnant with you. I guess the moral of the story is that if you care enough about someone, you’ll always find your way back to one another.”

Smiling up at her father, Jemma knew what she had to do.

She had already known that her mum and dad were best friends--they had vocalized that so many times that Jemma could recite their wedding vows from memory because they said it so much--but Jemma had never known their story of how they found each other. No wonder they always kissed each other goodbye even if they were leaving for five minutes. She started noticing this when once, her dad was going outside to wash the car and her mum pulled him in for a passionate kiss before saying, "I’ll miss you."

Jemma was going to kiss Fitz goodbye.

It only made sense. Her parents were best friends and they kissed each other goodbye, so why couldn’t Jemma? If her parents meant that much to each other, couldn’t she show Fitz how much he means to her? Jemma debated about it mentally for a while before finally coming to the conclusion that she was definitely going to do it.

That terrible day inevitably showed up.

Fitz’s room was dreadfully barren, and every time she looked out her window, a crushing feeling surrounded her. Out on the street was a moving truck with Fitz and his mum, along with Jemma’s dad, loading boxes into the back of it. In other circumstances, Jemma would have gone down and helped them, but today was just too heartbreaking for her.

In a week, she would be entering high school without Fitz there as her rock. It only gave her a slight comfort that he would be going through the same thing.

Jemma glanced at her watch: 9:47. The Fitzes would be leaving for Glasgow in thirteen minutes. Jemma could feel the lump in her throat beginning to rise and tears sprung to her eyes. She quickly blinked them away as a knock came to her door.

“Come in,” she said, hoping that her voice sounded normal.

When Fitz entered through the door, holding a small box in his hands, Jemma launched herself into a hug, not stopping the tears that appeared. Jemma wouldn’t let go of Fitz for a while, not wanting to let him go anywhere without her. She hesitantly pulled away when a sharp beep of the moving truck’s horn came from the street--Fitz’s ten minute warning.

Not wanting to waste precious time, Fitz shoved the present into her hands. “It’s just a little something I made,” he said nonchalantly, hands shoved in his pockets.

Jemma immediately knew what the gift was as soon as she opened the box. A small silver necklace with a pendant on the end representing the molecular structure for serotonin. Jemma had seen the molecular structure of the hormone in one of her science books and immediately found it fascinating. She had vocalized to Fitz that it would probably look nice on a piece of jewelry. Jemma had almost forgotten that exchange, but apparently Fitz didn’t.

“I love it, Fitz,” she whispered, a new wave of tears springing up, but this time, she was able to keep them restrained. She was about to give him another hug, but remembered that they were pressed for time, so she held back. “Now for your gift.”

As she crawled onto her hands and knees to retrieve the gift from under her bed, Fitz asked, “Is it your famous brownies?” Jemma had been known, under stressful circumstances, to bake obsessively. Unfortunately, she hadn’t had time to bake anything in the past few days, opting instead to stay in her room or talk to Fitz.

He received his answer in the form of his present, a scrapbook. If Jemma wasn’t stress baking, she was stress scrapbooking. This scrapbook was filled with various pictures of the duo throughout the years, from when they met to the present day. She had even included random pictures of some of Fitz’s favorite things, which basically consisted of just monkeys and food.

As Fitz flipped through the scrapbook, she could see his eyes were going damp. He closed the scrapbook and gave her a watery smile before wrapping his arms around her in a quick hug. Jemma hoped that it wouldn’t be their last one.

“I actually have one more gift for you,” Jemma told him. This was it. Now or never, right?

“I don’t think anything could be better than this, Jem. Unless it’s your brownies. Is it your brownies?” His eyes lighted up excitedly, and Jemma couldn’t help but smile.

She was still looking at his smile when she grabbed him by the shoulders and pressed her lips against his.

The kiss wasn’t longer than a second, just an innocent peck on the lips. But when Jemma pulled away, Fitz was stunned speechless. His eyes were wide and his jaw seemed to lose its purpose.

“Sorry?” Jemma sheepishly muttered.

Fitz was broken from his reverie by the loud blare of a horn. Time for him to leave.

As Jemma escorted him to the door, she started rambling to fill the awkward silence. “I really loved the necklace, Fitz. A lot. I’ll wear it every day. The craftsmanship is just amazing, but everything you make is amazing. Just look at everything we’ve done together. I hope you liked the scrapbook. I don’t know if you noticed, but I included some pictures of your favorite types of monkeys because I had some blank pages and--”

“Thank you, Jemma,” he interrupted her when they arrived at the side of his mother’s car. “For everything.”

He left with another hug and a wave from the backseat of the car. 

And just like that, her best friend was gone. 

* * *

 

Eight years later, Jemma became Dr. Dr. Jemma Simmons, the youngest cadet ever accepted to the SHIELD SciTech Academy (which was quite a long title for herself, she thought, but every detail counted, right?). The administration department told her when she first arrived that there was one other cadet her age at the Academy, but technically, she was still the youngest. Jemma made a mental note to herself that she would find this person--maybe the Academy wouldn’t be so lonely after all. Jemma was going to ask the woman the other cadet’s name, but the thought was completely thrown from her mind in the midst of maps and orientation packets.

It turned out that finding the second-youngest person in the Academy wasn’t too hard. After a month of crowd searching for someone who might look as young as her and quiet investigations, Jemma found her answer in the form of her Chem Lab elective. As soon as electives were announced, Jemma knew that she needed to get into Chem Lab, so she woke up at 5am to make sure she was the first person to sign up, which she was.

The next week, she was bouncing her leg excitedly in her chair, waiting for class to begin. She checked her watch for the tenth time in five minutes. 10:06, class was supposed to start six minutes ago. Where was Professor Larner? Jemma was not going to waste hours of pre-preparation for this class, just because Professor Larner didn’t show up.

Exactly a minute later, she came rushing in, hastily buttoning up her lab coat. “So sorry I’m late,” Professor Larner apologized. “Traffic was hell.” Okay, Jemma thought, that was a perfectly reasonable excuse, she shouldn’t have gotten so worked up.

Just as Professor Larner opened her lesson binder, ready to start the class, the heavy metal doors were pushed open again with a loud clang. Oh great, their first latecomer. Jemma shook her head in shame before looking down at her pristine notebook, pen at the ready.

“Sorry, Professor,” the latecomer panted. Jemma immediately noticed that he had a Scottish accent, which was interesting--no, not interesting at all. There were over five million Scottish people, definitely not interesting.

“Perfectly fine, Cadet--?”

“Fitz."

At that, Jemma had to restrain herself from jerking her head up completely. Fitz--it couldn’t be. It’s been years, years of loneliness without her best friend by her side. Years of being the odd one out in every class, even in her own family. But Jemma had to be reasonable, there were probably a ton of Scottish Fitzes in the world, can’t be too abnormal. She couldn’t get her hopes up. Yet, her free hand reached up to grasp the familiar serotonin pendant at her neck.

“Well, Cadet Fitz, it looks like there’s an empty spot by Cadet Simmons over there,” Professor Larner continued, pointing to Jemma. Jemma had made a point to meet every professor she had before classes had even started, to see if there was any extra work that could be done. Professor Larner had instantly taken a liking to Jemma, even emailing her a few science articles that she thought she would like.

It was at this point that Jemma willed herself to look at this Cadet Fitz. As soon as she looked up and met his eyes--those bright blue eyes--that she knew. It was her Fitz. She’d recognize those eyes and those curls anywhere. By the look on his face, she could tell he recognized her, too.

With every step Fitz took closer to her, it was like time slowed down, only the two of them in the room, their gaze never breaking. When he got to the row she was sitting in, Jemma stood up, noticing that he had finally gotten taller than her. When he was standing so close to her that all she could see was him, she could feel the familiar sting in the back of her eyes of tears threatening to fall.

“Fitz?” she asked, her voice quivering.

“Jemma,” he replied with a half-smile.

At that one word, it felt like all her breath had been pushed out of her, the tears falling from her eyes. Jemma grabbed Fitz by the shoulders and pulled him into an embrace, quietly sobbing into his shoulder.

“It’s been so long,” she cried into his tshirt. He responded by resting his face in her shoulder, rubbing her back gently.

“I know. Way too long.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I really hoped you enjoyed it! I feel like this AU deserves way more than less than 5k words, so look out for a sequel in the near future! :)


End file.
